Supporting Anti-Racism in Museums: A simple way to start your journey

The Delivering Change programme has been supporting museums to confront the reality that they have played a part in excluding the experiences and histories of many of Scotland’s people and communities. Working alongside those who have been excluded, we are working to transform museums into spaces of storytelling, identity, and power.

An important part of our work has been supporting Museum Activists from different organisations across Scotland. As part of their training, they have been working on embedding anti-racist practice in their museums, particularly thanks to one of the Museums Association’s (MA) Museum Essentials Programme. This course is called ‘Supporting Anti-Racism’ and it can be a useful resource for everyone in the sector. In this blog, I provide additional information about the course, as well as my reflections on the benefits it offers to individuals and institutions to encourage more of our colleagues throughout the sector to take part.

The MA’s Supporting Anti-Racism course offers a transformative learning experience for museum professionals seeking to challenge racism and embed anti-racist practice in their work.

The course was developed as part of the MA’s Anti-Racism Campaign; which includes “working towards a strategy for anti-racism in museums and campaigning for workforce and governance diversity”. This course is open to anyone in the sector. It is a perfect starting point if you are beginning your anti-racism journey. It will allow you to reflect, learn, and act—both individually and collectively and, provides a comprehensive framework for change.

The online course is divided into five modules, each building on the last:

• Understanding Racism and Anti-Racism
• The Role of Museums
• Anti-Racism at an Individual Level
• Anti-Racism at an Organisational Level
• Putting It Into Practice

Each module includes a mix of reading, watching, listening, and reflection exercises, which encourage you to engage with diverse perspectives and critically examine how we are all shaped by structural racism.

You can complete the course at your own pace, at a time and place that suits you. I found that being able to learn at my own pace and come back to the course when I had time really helped work around my other commitments. This was echoed by several other participants. It also means you can take the time you need to digest and understand the course’s contents as you go along.

In fact, this reflection time is built into the course through various reflective prompts. Although this is useful, we found that group reflection was particularly valuable for embedding the learning from the course. As part of the Museums Activists programme, we introduced peer-to-peer reflection sessions to support shared learning. Our Activists really benefited from these sessions which aimed to create a safe and supportive environment while encouraging shared learning and accountability.

Based on this experience, I would recommend setting up your own support and accountability group ahead of starting the course. This could take the shape of simply seeing if you can do the course alongside another colleague from your institution or another person form the sector who is also looking to start their anti-racist journey.

1. Defining Racism and Anti-Racism

The course begins by unpacking the concept of racism—not as individual prejudice, but as a systemic issue rooted in power and privilege. Participants explore how race is socially constructed and how whiteness has historically been positioned as the norm. Anti-racism is framed not as a passive stance but as active resistance to racial injustice.

Reflection prompts encourage learners to consider their own experiences with microaggressions and structural inequality, particularly within museum contexts.

2. Museums as Agents of Change

Museums are challenged to move beyond performative gestures and embrace anti-racism as a core value. Through case studies, panel discussions, and articles, participants explore how museums can:

• Reframe narratives
• Rethink collections
• Share power with communities

One of the quotes that stood out to me, was from curator Miles Greenwood reminding us: “The value of the museum isn’t innate. Its value is in the role it plays within the society in which it exists.”

3. Personal Reflection and Power

Participants are invited to examine their own privilege and power through tools like the White Privilege Test and the Anti-Racist Checklist. The course encourages honest reflection on discomfort, defensiveness, and the need for radical unlearning.

The concept of solidarity is introduced as a deeper, more accountable alternative to allyship. A powerful quote from Queensland Aboriginal activists sets the tone: “If you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

4. Organisational Accountability

This module explores how institutions can build accountability and sustain anti-racism work. It includes practical tools like power mapping, institutional change frameworks, and examples from museums such as Hackney Museum and Cornwall Museums Partnership.

Participants are asked to reflect on decision-making structures, who holds power, and how policies can be reimagined to centre racial equity.

5. Action Planning and Sustaining Change

The final module supports learners in identifying priorities, setting goals, and creating accountability plans. It emphasises the importance of collaboration, reflection, and care—both for oneself and others doing this work.

Participants are encouraged to imagine what an anti-racist museum would look and feel like, and to commit to tangible actions that move their institutions forward.

Whether you’re a curator, educator, or in a front-of-house role, this course can help you identify where you have power and how to use it. It offers resources, from checklists to action plans, to support real change. While the course tackles difficult and uncomfortable topics, it also reminds us that anti-racism work is not just about dismantling harm—it’s about building something better. This course is a vital step on that journey, and I would encourage everyone in the museums sector to make use of it.

Delivering Change is about coming together in this work to transform systems of oppression and recognising that we are not alone in our visions to create a more loving, compassionate, inclusive and equitable world for all people and beings.

To get started with this course to Support Anti-Racism, visit the Museums Association website.